Thursday, July 10, 2008

Mars meets Saturn

The solar system's second smallest planet moves next to the second largest planet. Tonight around 10 p.m. look to the west for these two worlds appearing close to each other. Mars may be closer to the Earth, but Saturn is much larger making it appear brighter than the Red Planet. Saturn lies over 900 million miles from us, while Mars sits 200 million miles away. Saturn is roughly 16 times the diameter of little Mars.

Tomorrow night, Mars will begin to move away from Saturn.

Such is our view from Earth ...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you belong to an astronomy club, and if so, which one?

Enlightenment said...

hi i want to begin star gazing, needed some info would you be able to guide

Anonymous said...

Where is Mars going now?

Curious Skywatcher said...

There are several astronomy clubs in Southwest Virginia.
1. Echo Ridge near Galax and Independence,
2. Apple Ridge Farm Astronomy Club on Bent Mountain (Copper Hill),
3. Roanoke Valley Astronomical Society in Roanoke Virginia,
4. Blue Ridge Astronomy Club in Forest.

Any one of these would be good to help you learn the night sky.

Curious Skywatcher said...

Stargazing is a great pastime to become involved in. Your local library has some great books to help you get started. I think one of the best is "NightWatch" by Terence Dickinson. This book presents stargazing in an understandable manner and it covers many topics, and covers them well.

This fall, Dabney S Lancaster Community College will offer a 6 week, 12 hour stargazing class at the Greenfield Center in Botetourt. More on this later.

Enlightenment said...

cool this is help ful, you know we dont have star gazing clubs here in India bombay, wish we had some here as well..thanks for the tip...i shall go and check for the book at the local store